I invite you to turn back in
your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel chapter 7. The book of 2 Samuel
chapter 7. I want to read beginning with
verse 15 where Nathan is saying to the Lord, but my mercy shall
not depart away from him as I took it from Saul. This is the Lord
speaking, as it were, through Nathan the prophet to David,
whom I put away before thee, and in thine house and thy kingdom
shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall
be established forever. According to all these words
and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. Then went King David in, and
sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what
is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet
a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou hast spoken also
of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the
manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto
thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy
servant. For thy word's sake, and according
to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things to
make thy servant know them. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord
God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any god beside
thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. May
the Lord bless this morning this truth. Now God's heart, I want
to make this statement because I believe it to be a true one
and because I found it so in my spirit, God's heart is the
source of all blessing. As this chapter was read, Brother
Randy read it to us a while ago, We have taken here, as it were,
from this chapter, mainly verse 22 is our text, where it says,
Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee.
And then also in verse 21, it says, For thy word's sake and
according to thine own heart hast thou done all these great
things. David speaks of great things
in verse 21. And then in verse 22, about the
greatness of his God, his great God. Now, we find in this chapter
here that David had a desire, a strong desire in his heart
to build a house for God. And he seemed to think that it
was neglectful on his part to live in a house of cedar himself,
and the ark remained unhoused. So he resolved to build for the
Ark a place of worship associated with it a temple. and he had
gathered for years gold and silver, and he may continue to do so
that he might erect this house for the Lord his God." He meant
to build a temple. That's what he wanted to do.
He had that in his heart. He wanted to build a temple that
was more glorious than any that had ever been built by the greatest
heathen prince for his false deity. David was a jealous man
for his God and he wanted him to have a great house. Now this
was the thought which was in David's mind. It was in fact
the great ambition of his life that he might be permitted to
build this house for the worship of Jehovah God. Yet the Lord
was not willing to accept the temple at David's hand because
he had been a man of war from his youth up, and a man who would
build the sanctuary of God could not have blood-stained hands. David was a man of war. Now the
wars which David fought were necessary wars for the liberation
and the defense of the nation of Israel, yet nevertheless,
A man of peace must build a house for the God of peace. He must
be a man of peace. And, of course, the Lord had
selected Solomon, the son of David, in whose reign there was
no war, and he would have the honor of raising this great house
of prayer in the name of the Lord. Solomon would build this
great house. Yet we have observed that though
the Lord refused to David the realization of his wish, he did
it in a most gracious manner. The Lord would not allow David
to do it, but yet the Lord gave David great blessings. Know the
Lord honored David, his servant, even in the non-acceptance of
his offer, and multiplied as many blessings upon the head
of David as could have been given to him if he had been permitted
to carry out his intention. Do you believe that? I believe
that. In other words, if David had been permitted by God to
build this sanctuary and to build this house for the Lord, to house
the ark, I believe that he would have received many blessings
in doing it if it had been in the will of God. But I believe
David received as many choice blessings from God even though
he was not permitted to do this. Now we have something maybe in
our hearts to the glory of God. We want to do something to the
honor and praise of our great God. Maybe we're jealous. for
our God and maybe we would like to do something in our lifetime,
maybe something extraordinary, maybe something that we could
do that would bring great honor and glory to God more than possibly
we or anybody else we know of in our time. have been able to
do. Now if it were to come to pass
that we should not be permitted to do that, that particular work
or thing upon which we set our hearts, we ought not be surprised
and certainly we ought not be disappointed. But nevertheless,
many times we are very surprised that things don't work out like
we want them to. We believe our desires are holy desires, and
we believe our ambitions are ambitions that God ought to bless,
and we believe that our intentions are good intentions, and we want
to serve the Lord. And this was the case in David's
situation here, but the Lord did not allow him to build the
house. Now, a servant of God's true
obedience can sometimes be as well seen in what he does not
do as in what he does. Now remember that, that a true
obedient servant of God may be as well seen in what he does
not do as in what he does. It is not for us to choose our
place in this life of our work, if God has laid hold of us, saved
us, and planted us in a certain place, that was not of our choosing. that was of God's choice and
it's not our place to go around doing the choosy what the Lord
would have us to do or where he'd want us to do it. The will
of God must be done in our lives. Let us not be disappointed if
things do not work out exactly like we'd like and if we're never
used like we'd like to be used. Maybe we'd like to be a very
famous preacher, maybe we'd like to be able to move the hearts
of thousands. The Lord may not permit that
we move the hearts of ten people in our ministry or in our lifetime,
but we must leave all with the Lord if we're true and obedient
servants. I am thy servant, David would
say, doing or in the not doing I am thy servant. David would
say, I am absolutely at your disposal in this matter. If you
don't want me to build the temple, if you don't want me to build
the sanctuary, then I'm at your disposal, whatever your will
is, and in all other things too. And so I wish it ever to be,
David would say. I am subject unto the Lord, I
am obedient unto the God of my salvation. Now notice Nathan
was sent to David to reveal to him God's great purpose of grace
towards him. David here heard from Nathan's
mouth what God was going to do and how God was going to bless
him and how God was going to give Solomon here the ability
to build this house. And so the great purpose of grace
towards David and to his son Solomon, this was revealed by
God's word through the prophet. Now at this revelation as it
was given to David, David could not imagine why God should do
great things for him until this thought and truth entered his
mind. He could not imagine why that
God would bless his house forever and how that God would establish
forever his throne through his seed, how that God would do this,
and why that God would give these great and gracious blessing.
And until this thought entered into his mind, he is a great
God. He is a gracious God and full
of loving kindness, and that is the reason that he has promised
all these things to me. It is because of the great heart
of God. Now if it is a God that is doing
the giving, If it is God that is doing the giving, now listen
to me now, for Christ's sake I can believe in the greatness
of the gift. If it's God that is doing the
giving, then regardless of what the Lord says in his holy word
that he will give me, I can believe in the greatness of the gift.
There was a servant of Alexander the Great. And this servant was
a very obedient servant. He had been faithful. He had
risked his life to save this monarch. And Alexander the Great
wanted to reward this servant. And so he told this servant to
send his request for whatever he wanted unto that one that
was in charge, unto that steward that was in charge of all the
treasure. And so he did so, but it was
such a large request that the steward that was in charge of
the treasury, he referred it back to Alexander the Great and
told him, said, I won't give this to this man because it's
such a great request. And Alexander the Great sent
back word to the steward and said, This man, you give it to
him because he believes in the greatness of my kingdom. You
give it to him. Whatever he asks, you give it
to him. Now, so it seems to have been
somewhat, David seems to have been somewhat overcome here with
the weight of God's mercy which God had put upon him. He was
overcome by that, so he went in and he sat before the Lord.
We read that here in the scriptures in verse 18, I believe it is.
Then went King David in and sat before the Lord, and he said,
Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that Thou hast brought
me hitherto? So he went in and sat before
the Lord to meditate upon what Nathan the prophet had said to
him. And I think probably there was several questions in David's
mind, but there was at least two that was in his mind. And
to these questions he tried desperately to find an answer. And the first
question was this. Why should God speak such great
and precious promises concerning such weighty matters, such everlasting
blessings to a man in the first place? Why should God speak about
such blessings as these to a man, period? And the second was, I
think, why should these great promises be spoken to me of all
men? Why should they be spoken unto
me? Maybe some other man, but certainly
not to me. Now, why to him rather than anyone
else was these blessings spoken? Well, if you look at verse 18,
he asked the question, who am I? Who am I? Now, beloved, I
don't know whether you ever asked yourself that question or not.
It'd be a good question for you to ask yourself. Who am I? Now, not who am I as to my mother
or to my father, not who am I to the preacher, but who am I before
the God of the Bible? Who am I before the God who knows
everything there is to be known about me? The Bible says that
all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. The Bible says that he needs
not that any man should testify of man because he knows what
is in man. Now have you ever asked yourself
that question? Why don't you do that? Who am
I? Well, if you understand the truth of the word of God, you'll
answer, I am a sinner before God. I am guilty of breaking
the holy law of God. I stand guilty as a sinner before
God and I need to be purged from my old sin. I need a substitute. I am in need of the mercy of
God in Jesus Christ, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay,
and so then I think there's another question, verse 20, and is this
the manner of man, O Lord God? Now is this the way that man
would give? Well, absolutely not. This is
not the manner of man that he would give such great blessings
as these. Now, David was a sinner. David was a sinner. Much has
been said about his sin and about his fall into sin. Much has been
said about that. We're not getting into that this
morning. But David was a sinner. And David said, is this your
manner, O Lord God, to speak these kind of things unto men? Now, he answers these things
in verse 20 and 21. And what can David say morn to
thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy
servant. That's what we were just talking
about. When you ask the question, who am I? We know that the Lord
And if you're conscious of the fact that God's eye is upon you,
and that there's nothing that you do that God does not know
about, that all things are naked, as we said, and open unto the
eyes of the Lord, and if you're conscious of that, then, my friend,
you understand what David is talking about here in this verse. Whenever he says here that, and
what can David say more unto thee? I mean, do you have anything
to say this morning about yourself that God don't already know?
I mean, is there something about you that's been hid from the
Lord? Do you have a special gift or
do you have something about you that should bring you into favor
with God that God doesn't know about? No, my friend, you do
not have any. Always you see yourself. Why
don't you come before God in your true character? Why don't
you confess what you really are? That is a great lesson to learn.
And if you have learned that God knows about you, and if you've
learned that you've not hid anything from Him, and that you're not
in a place where God's eye can't see, if you've learned that,
You've learned some very, very valuable truth. And David says,
well, what more can I say? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy
servant. For thy word's sake and according
to thine own heart hast thou done all these things to make
thy servant know them. Well, I think there are these
two things that we're to notice here. First of all, then, the
cause of the reason, and David points it out here in verse 21,
the measure of God's goodness toward any individual, toward
all men, but especially toward his people, is the heart of God
himself. It's the heart of God that determines
the Lord's goodness toward us. God would do great things for
David, but not because of David's greatness. David said, Lord,
you know your servant, and he does, my soul, he does know his
servant. He was at first nothing but a
shepherd boy. Look in verse 8. Now therefore,
so shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the Lord of
hosts, I took you from the sheep coat, from the following of the
sheep, to be the ruler over my people over Israel. God reminds
him of where he found it. And certainly it's pure grace
that he chose David and anointed him to be king over Israel. It was because of God's greatness. So God did not choose him because
of his greatness. It was out of the heart of God.
David's name was great also, but God had made him a great
name. Look here in verse 9. And I was
with thee, whithersoever thou winnest. and have cut off all
thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name."
I've made you a great name likened to the name of the great men
that are in the earth. The Lord says I've made you a
great name. Now the one and only reason for
the great blessings then and promises which God gave to David
was found in the heart of God. David could not imagine why God
should do such great things for him till this thought did indeed
get fixed in his mind and his heart. He is a great God. He is a gracious God and full
of loving kindness, and that is the reason that he has done
these great things for me. It is because of who God is,
not who David is. the cause of who God is. If you
look carefully, you will see that this principle, as you read
the Word of God, as you study the Word of God, you'll see that
this runs clear through the Word of God concerning all the gifts
of God that the Bible speaks of, that men are the recipients
of. that it's because of the great
heart of God that he gives gifts and that he gives his mercy.
Think with me if you will, the great gift, the greatest gift
that God ever gave to man. I wonder this morning if I were
to ask you that question, what is the greatest gift that God
ever give to His people. And I call them His people because
I know that this gift that I'm referring to was given to His
people. Now then, what would you answer?
What would be the answer? Oh, do I hear somebody this morning? Is there somebody here that can
say, I know what the greatest gift is that God has given. Anybody want to answer that?
His own Son, His own beloved Son, the great gift of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now Paul called Him the unspeakable
gift of God. Jesus said in John 10, 29, My
Father gave them Me. My Father gave them, talking
about His people, gave them Me. In John 17 and 6, and He said,
And thou gavest them Me. And so the Lord Jesus has been
given. God had but one only begotten
and well-beloved Son, yet he gave him to us for us. And how come? Well, no one could
have suggested and thought to him. Who is it that would have
went to God and suggested that He give this well-beloved, this
only begotten Son of His, unto His people? I can well believe,
beloved, that when the holy angels heard that the Son of God was
to be incarnate, and when it leaked out in heaven that in
human flesh that He was to die, even they could scarcely believe
that such a thing was possible. I believe that the wings of the
angels were absolutely quiet when it leaked out in heaven,
that the Son of God was coming down from glory, and that He
was going to be incarnate in a body of flesh, wrapped in a
veil of our inferior clay, and that He was going to die for
sinners on a cross. He was going to die for a people
on the cross. Not a wing of an angel was any
longer flapping in heaven. No seraph moving, absolute quietness
and stillness. God is going to give His Son
for sinners. They thought of Calvary's sacrifice,
and the thought of Calvary's sacrifice could never, and the
glory tree could never by any possibility have originated in
the mind of a man or the mind of an angel. God gave his son
to us and for us because his heart was his heart and there
is nothing in the universe like the heart of God. His own heart
in inconceivable compassion suggested to itself the giving. of its
greatest treasure, and He gave it up for us, poor sinners, the
very heart of Christ, to bleed and to die on our behalf. Now, beloved, as we look at the
Word of God, there could be no other reason why God would give
us His Son. The Bible says in Luke 1.32,
that he shall be great, referring to the Lord Jesus. David talked
about great blessings and talked about his great God. Well in
Luke 1.32 he said he shall be great, referring to the Lord
Jesus. So we ought to entertain great
thoughts about this gift. that God has given to us the
great gift of the Lord Jesus. What a gift it is. Let your thoughts
of Him always be high, beloved. Let them always be high. I ask
God to cause your estimation of His Son's value and greatness
and glory to be ever expanding and never diminishing. And your
thoughts of self to be ever diminishing and never expanding. Well, may
this be the constant cry of our heart. John the Baptist, He must
increase and I must decrease. Now if you would rise above,
I'm talking about this great gift that God has been pleased
to give to us. It came from God's heart, my
friend. It came from the heart of God. You rejoice in a Savior
this morning? You rejoice in a substitute that
bore your iniquity? Or do you rejoice in a substitute
that God killed in your place? Do you rejoice in the finished
work? of Jesus Christ this morning, that's the gift of God, my friend,
and it came from God's heart. It didn't come because of who
you are, it comes because of who God is, and the greatness
of his heart. And so if you would rise above
the cares of earth, and the toys of time, you must set your affection
on Christ and let all your thoughts of Him be elevated. Earth diminishes
as Jesus Christ rises in our appreciation and our thoughts.
Burdens become lighter when Christ is magnified in the heart. Troubles
are less troubling, are they not, when Christ's greatness
is understood. Sorrow is less painful when Christ
is seen upon his throne, exalted, great, and glorious. Faith is
stronger when it apprehends or lays hold of the greatness of
Christ. more fully. The way to grow in
grace is to let your thoughts of Christ grow to be God's thoughts
of Christ. What does God think about His
Son? Well, He honors His Son. He honors
Him. God will be pleased to save every
one of His people for the sake of His Son. That's what God thinks
about Him. God said that every one of my people, I will save
them for Jesus' sake. I'll save them because He has
represented them. Because He's been faithful, I
will save them because of Him. God will honor His Son and save
every one of His people. He'll bring every son home to
glory through Christ. So the way to grow in grace is
to let your thoughts of Christ grow to be God's thoughts of
Christ. God said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased." Oh, may we all be well pleased
with God's gift to us. The love which compels Christ
to die for us is the love which rules the heart of Him who rules
the world. And so, beloved, we see that
Jesus Christ is this great gift of God toward us. Now the following,
I want us to follow on here in the course of this chapter here
for a few minutes and see that this is true in regards to God's
further blessing here to David. But keep in mind the great blessing
which God has blessed you with, the greatest blessing that God
ever give to his people was his son. Now the next thing I want
us to talk a little bit about was to see how that God adopted
Solomon And in verse 14, let's read that verse, verse 14. And
I will be his father, God said concerning Solomon. Now you know
who Solomon was. Solomon had a brother, don't
you know? And his brother had died. He
had died because of David and because of Solomon's mother's
sin. Because the two of them had sinned.
God took the life of Solomon's brother. But God now, in mercy,
has forgiven all sin, and God is going to bless Solomon. He's going to bless him. He has
adopted Solomon into his family. Listen to it. And he said, I'll
be his father. I'm going to be Solomon's father. In other words, he's now in my
family. He belongs to me. I've adopted
him, and he's mine. And he shall be my son. He's my son. If he commit iniquity,
I'll chasten him just like any father, good father, would do
his son. And with the stripes of the children
of men, I'm going to use men to discipline him if he needs
to be disciplined. But my mercy shall not depart
away from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away before thee. And so this adoption here, I'll
be his father, he'll be my son. And this great honor which was
promised to Solomon I want you to follow me in my thinking here,
has been conferred upon every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Has He not said, as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even
to those that believe on His name? Does not the Word of God
teach that we are adopted into the family of God when we come
to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? All of the ex-sons and
daughters of God called by the Holy Spirit have received within
our hearts the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. God is our Father and we're His
sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Now what I ask
What, I ask, could have induced God to adopt as his sons and
daughters? What could have made him say,
I will receive you and will be a father unto you except this
reason given by David, here in verse 21, What could possibly
have been the reason why God would have took you into his
family? What could have possibly been
the reason that he took this son of David, Solomon, into his
family? This father would in his heart
take within itself I want you to see this, the Father would,
this great heart of God would take within itself a vast multitude
which no man could number of the sons of Adam, and so he said,
My Son Christ shall be the firstborn among many brethren. The great heart of God, it encompassed
a multitude. Those that hear us preach the
doctrine of God's sovereign grace and the doctrine of God's elective
grace They like to say that we preach a very narrow doctrine
and that there are very few people as far as we're concerned. Now
the Bible does say there are few that be saved, but I'll tell
you there'll be a multitude that's more numerous than the sand of
the seashore, all due to the great heart of God and to sovereign
grace that rules the day that has ruled every day since God
purposed to work among men. Sovereign grace is to be praised. Now listen to me, he's my only
begotten son, saith the Lord, but there shall be given to him
a seed, who shall be joint heirs with him, for they shall be adopted
into my family, and beloved, blessed God, it is so. I am as
much, hear me, a son of God today as Solomon was a son of God. As much so, and I am so, on the
same basis that Solomon was. You say, Solomon was unworthy.
Why, he came from a relationship that very few would have sanctioned.
And my friend, only God knows where we come from, but I'm going
to tell you today that we are what we are in Jesus Christ because
of the great heart of God. And David and Solomon are the
same. Now next in verse 14 and 15,
the Lord promised to David that when he had adopted Solomon as
his son, he would be constant to him and that he would never
forsake him. I want you to look at this. I'll
be his father, he shall be my son, and I'm going to discipline
him if he needs it. And in verse 15, but my mercy
shall not depart away from him. My mercy will never, I'll not
take it from him. My mercy will never depart from
him. Brother, sister, this constancy
of love, the love of God, finds a parallel, I believe, in my
case and in your case. Now why is it that God adopts
us as his children today? Now I believe that when God adopts
us as his children, then he will never cast us off as his children. I do not believe that the mercy
of God will ever leave one who has been born of the Spirit of
God. I speak with reverence when I say that it is not possible
for him who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to unchild us and to permit us to be plucked from
his hand. I say that it is not possible. It is not possible. I'm talking
about God's heart. And I'm talking about the fact
that He said, of Solomon, He said, My mercy will never be
taken from him. It will not depart away from
him. I'm not taking it away. And on the same basis that He
was the Son of God, we are, and God is saying to us, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that you may boldly say, The
Lord is my helper, and we need not fear what man shall do unto
us. We are God's children. He pleased
the Lord to make you His people. God will not forsake His people
because He pleased the Lord to make you His people. I speak,
as I say, with reverence. But now listen to me. God will
not unchild us. He will not permit us to be plucked
from His hands. Somebody said, but what if we sin? Well, I do
believe with all my heart that God still chastens his people.
I do believe that with all my heart. When they sin, I believe
whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and he scourges every son that
he receives. I believe it with all my heart.
But I will say this, and I want to make it clear to you, that
when God took your case, He knew everything there was to be known
about you. And I want to say, in very, very plain language,
that you, my friend, have never surprised God with anything you've
ever done. You have never surprised God,
neither have you taken Him at a time when He was so put back
that He didn't know what to do about what you had done. And
I want to tell you another thing, that there is no way that any
child of God can ever commit a sin that is larger than the
grace of Almighty God. You can't do it. Now, I'm not
encouraging anybody to sin. I'm just talking about the greatness
of the heart of God. That's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the greatness of the grace of God. Isn't that
what I'm supposed to do here this morning? Isn't that my task?
Is to set forth to you the God of the Bible, His heart and His
grace? And I'm telling you that grace,
that marvelous grace of our loving Lord, that that grace is greater
than all of our sin. And if there's anybody here this
morning, and you profess to be a Christian, if you don't believe
that the grace of God is greater than all of our sin, then I don't
know where you stand this morning. I don't know where you stand.
I'm here to tell you that God will not go back on His gifts
and His calling. And regardless of what we are
or what we become. Now Steve, I've got a son named
Steven, I've got a son named Mark, I've got a son named Mike,
I've got a son named David, and I want to say that whatever they
may be, whatever they may be this morning, wherever they are,
whatever they may be thinking, whoever they're dealing with,
or whatever situations they're involved in in this life, these
boys must always be my sons. And they who are born of God
shall forever be the children of God. They will ever be God's
children. That's their relationship. And
the poet said, once in Him, in Him forever, nothing from His
love can sever. He gives us eternal life, and
we shall never perish, neither shall any pluck us out of His
hand. And why is this? It is not because of some good
thing in us that will make us faithful and keep us holding
on unto the end. No, no. But according to thine
own heart hast thou done all these great things. According
to thine own heart hast thou done it. Now, we'd like to be
faithful unto death. We'd like to be. There's not
any of us here that know Christ that does not lament our depravity,
does not lament what we are. We mourn over our foolishness. over our failings, over that
corruption that still is in our hearts, this heart of flesh. And we know that until this body
of flesh is put off, that it'll continue to be there. It'll continue
to be there. I am not among those who believe
that we're sanctified, holy, and that we're going to get so
good that finally we will never commit another sin. I do not
believe that the Word of God don't teach that. The Bible does
not teach that. The Bible says that if we confess
our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. That's what God said. He said
it, I believe it. And I think that every child
of God ought to make it a practice to believe what God, the plain
statements that God has made about sin. They ought to make
it a practice to believe it. The Bible says that in John 6
and 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, he that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And that's exactly
what he says here, but my mercy shall not depart away from him. That's exactly what that means.
God said, I'm not going to cast you out. If you get to Christ,
God will never cast you out. You say, preacher, preacher,
but maybe I'll stumble and fall. Most likely you will. The Bible
says, the righteous shall fall seven times, but the Lord will
lift him up. The Lord will lift him up. I'm
not talking about you, I'm talking about our God, that he'll lift
you up. I'm talking about you'll probably
fall, but God is faithful and he said, my mercy, I'll not depart. And David said, it's all got
to do, it's according to thine own heart that you've done this,
according to God's heart. He will securely and forever
keep all the sheep that were given to him by the Father, and
not one of them shall be lost. That's the meaning of John 6.39.
Not one of them will be lost. This is one of the supreme blessings,
don't you think, of the covenant of grace. One of the supreme
blessings. I confess to you that I wouldn't
give you a dime for a salvation that I could lose. Would you?
Amen? Is there anybody here that would
give a dime for a salvation that you could tinker with and mess
up unto eternity and finally die and go to hell? Would you
give a dime for that kind of salvation? Well, not me. Not
me. That kind of salvation never
worked for me because I'm a sinner, don't you see? And because I
do fail, don't you see? And because I do, I do find myself
wondering sometimes in my heart away, away from the Lord and
away from His will and purpose. I find in my heart some murmuring
and complaining against the providence of God. I find that there's no,
that there's, well like Paul, he said, in me there dwelleth
no good thing. No good thing in me. No good
thing. And so my friend, a salvation
that I could lose, I wouldn't give you a dime for it. I'm not
interested in that kind of salvation. Let whoever want, let the religious
bigots say what they want to. Everlasting life is the thing
I need. I need everlasting life. And
I believe that's what God gave to me. The gift of God is what? Eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Eternal! That's the kind of life,
God. I give unto them eternal life. That's the kind of life. The
life of God, which can never change or be taken away from
us. That's the kind of life we've got. The life of God in us. And that life will never, never
change. But why is it given? Well, the only answer is according
to the heart, the faithful, the immutable, the gracious, loving
heart of the ever-blessed Father. That's the only reason why that
we're given eternal life, and that we don't have to worry and
fret ourselves into the grave trying to do enough. Oh, my friend,
I hope you can give it up. Now, the last thing here, we
have the promise of the blessing of the future. Verse 19, he said,
And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but
thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while
to come. And is this the manner of man,
O Lord God? You have spoken at thy servant's
house for a great while to come. The Lord spoke concerning Solomon
at David's house, and he has spoken after the same fashion
concerning all who are believers. Paul asked, Who shall separate
us from the love of God? And then he answered that question,
said, Neither death nor life nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature could
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. And David said, Thou hast spoken
also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. But for
us, it is far more than a great while to come, my friend. It
is a great eternity to come. A great eternity to come. Now, that's the message of the
Word of God. God has appointed bliss for us forever and forever,
pleasures at his right hand forevermore, a crown of glory that fadeth
not away a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,
a kingdom which cannot be moved, and all this certain because
of God's heart. What an immeasurable measure
of goodness and grace there is in the heart of God. Now, brother
and sister, if the devil has ever said to you about the promises
which God has made to you about heaven, if the devil ever says
to you, that's too good to be true, don't you believe that?
Don't you believe that? That's too good to be true. Tell
him that it is not so. Tell him that it would be so
if God only gave according to the measure of our merit, or
the limits of our understanding, or the extent of our faith. Just tell him that'd be true
if that was the way it was. Now did you get what I'm saying?
If the devil says it's too good to be true, that you're going
off to a place where you shall be forever with the Lord. That
when you die, you won't have to cross Jordan alone, sister,
brother. When you die, there'll be somebody
there to lead you home. Whenever you leave this world,
you're just gonna go upstairs and be with the Lord forever.
To be with Him forever and ever and ever. Oh my friend, if the
devil says that's too good, then you tell him now, if God gave
according to the measure of my merit, it would be too good to
be true. And if God gave according to the limit of my understanding,
my little mental understanding, then it would be too good to
be true. Or to the extent of my ability to believe that he's
going to give it to me, it would be true, devil. But it is not. It is not true. But He does much
better than that. Does not the Bible say that He
does exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think? Isn't
that what the Word of God says? Exceedingly abundantly above
all that we ask or think. Isn't that marvelous? That is
so wonderful that God does more than we can ask, more than we
can think. God's heart, not mine. is the
measure of his giving, not my capacity to receive, but his
capacity to give. Is that right? I'm telling you
the truth. Now we'll shut up to this, aren't
we? God's capacity to give and not our capacity to receive.
We must get this fixed in our hearts and minds. I can only
receive like a man, but God can give like a God. Now that, I hope, will honor
God. God can give like the God He
is. If it is God who's doing the
giving, I can believe in the greatness of the gift, be it
what it may be. For nothing can be great, too
great, for Him. Don't be stinted in your desires,
my friend. Don't commit the sin of limiting
the Holy One of Israel. As he gives according to his
own heart, I will ask great things of him, for he has said, Open
your mouth wide, and I will fill it." Open your mouth wide. In our prayers, let us not ask
according to the measure of our poor, shriveled up, cold, weak
hearts, but according to God's great heart that is infinite
and full of grace. Now my friend, if we could get
that fixed, oh how that would change our prayer lives. How
would change our calling upon the Lord? Oh, my friend, we're
so limited. So the measure of God's goodness
is the heart of God and not our own ability to ask. We need really
to get some help here. The reason of God's goodness
lies in his own heart then. Why does God bless his people?
What is the cause of it? When God chose his people, did
he choose or elect them even so father for so it seemed good
in thy sight was the reason Jesus said sovereignty according to
thine own heart hast thou done all these great things and set
them among princes even the princes of the people there can be but
one answer and that's our text and to close with this most people
who God deals with look inside their own heart to find a reason
why God should bless and why God should forgive them. And
as you cannot find any reason there, you think there is not. You say, I've looked within,
preacher, and I don't find a reason why God ought to touch me with
a ten-foot pole. I don't see any reason why God
Almighty should do anything for a person like me. Well, amen. I say you've probably seen the
thing right, but you're not supposed to give it up there. You must
look in another direction. You've got to look away from
yourself. You cannot look within. You cannot leave it there, my
brother, my sister. You must look away. You must
look in another direction. You must look to God. Look to
the great heart of God and say with David, have mercy upon me,
O God, unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out!
my transgressions. The reason for mercy is in God
alone. There's not any reason for it
in ourselves. No reason for it. It is the glory
of God to forgive sinners for his own sake. Now listen to me
and we're done. If you're done with self, Christ
has already begun with you. If you're done with yourself,
Christ has already begun with you. Is there a bankrupt sinner
here? Is there somebody here who says,
oh, I know, I've looked in, preacher, and there ain't a thing there.
There's nothing there. There's nothing there. I don't
have anything to give to God. In my hand, nothing, I pray.
God has already started working you, friend. God's already began
to show you. His Son so pleaded. It's the
best of all arguments. For Christ's sake, forgive me. Do it for the sake of your Son.
What was there in you, the poet said, that could merit esteem
or give the Creator delight? T'was even so, Father, you ever
must sing, because it seemed good in thy sight. Father, in
the name of Jesus, would you bless the Word that's been presented
in a stumbling way But would you bless and own it? We've told
the truth on you. We told the truth. We preach
the truth of your word to sinners and to thy people. Would you
make this message a great blessing to your people? And would you
save some poor lost sinner here as they receive the message into
their hearts by the Holy Spirit? We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.